Angela+Hall

. Angela Masheal Hall, a 27-year-old mother of five, called to arrange a [|safe, legal abortion] at [|Thomas Tucker's office in Alabama]. One of Tucker's employees, Joy Davis, screened Angela and felt that she had risk factors that made abortion in an office setting unsafe. Joy got on the phone with Tucker and indicated that she felt that Angela should be referred to a hospital. Tucker told Davis that "we need the money. Just do it. Just put the patient through." Tucker ordered her to prep Angela, who was in the second trimester of pregnancy. The fee for Angela's abortion was $1,800.
 * SUMMARY: Angela Hall, age 27, died June 14, 1991 after an abortion by Thomas Tucker in Jefferson County, AL. **

Angela underwent the abortion on June 11, 1991, and started having difficulty breathing. Her blood pressure fell, setting off an alarm on a piece of monitoring equipment. Tucker told Davis to turn the alarm off because other patients could hear it.

Angela was sent to a recovery room where she bled so heavily that Davis became alarmed and called an ambulance. Davis said that Tucker told her that he was the doctor and if anybody was going to make a decision to call the ambulance, it was going to be him.

Davis reported to Tucker that Angela was bleeding through the packing put in place after the abortion, and asked him to do something for his patient.

"What do you want me to do?" he asked her.

"I don't know," Davis said she responded, "but I want you to do something. She's going to lay here and die."

"Fine. Call the * ambulance," Tucker said before leaving the building, according to Davis. He was loath to call an ambulance, Davis reported, because he had already referred a patient to a hospital that day for complications.

Angela was taken to the hospital, where she suffered respiratory failure, clotting, and [|sepsis]. She died just before midnight June 14. The autopsy found numerous tears and lesions in the pelvic area, and congestive necrosis in Angela's liver and spleen. The doctors concluded that amniotic fluid embolism had caused clotting problems resulting in necrosis, septic shock, and cardiac arrest.

When Alabama authorities subpoenaed Angela's records, Tucker ordered Davis to destroy some and falsify others. Davis tore up the records, which he then tried to burn in an ash tray, Davis said. When this set off the clinic's smoke alarm, Tucker put out the fire, bagged up the papers, and told Davis to take the papers to the basement and burn them. .Instead, she said, she taped them back together and eventually turned them over to the medical board.

Tucker surrendered his medical license in order to halt the investigation, planning to renew his license at a later date.

It is interesting to note that in the publicity surrounding the lawsuit filed by Angela's family, Ron Fitzsimmons of the National Coalition of Abortion Providers, among other prochoice groups, balked at efforts to close Tucker down, on the grounds that he was Alabama's only abortionist, and that even he was better than no abortionist at all.

Sources:
 * Jefferson County Circuit Court Case No. CV93-00632
 * "Abortion Doc Ordered To Pay $10M For Wrongful Death"> Tommy Tucker loses $10 suit to five orphaned children of abortion patient Angela Hall.
 * "Abortion Provider Risks Losing License"> Tommy Tucker in trouble after Angela Hall's death. Pro choice were suspicious of Tucker but remained silent.
 * "Faulty Abortion Prompts Clinic Inquiry"> Pro Choice Mississippi defends Tommy Tucker despite malpractice and death.
 * "Medical Board Suspends Tucker License"> More on Tucker and Angela's death.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"Tucker Surrenders License as 'Best Course'"> Tommy Tucker and the abortion death of Angela Hall and Norplant death of Michelle Jordan.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"Tucker: Bad Doctor or Victim of Conspiracy?" //Birmingham (AL) News//, Apr. 3, 1994
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"Abortion Doctor Faces Loss of License," //Birmingham (AL) News//, Mar. 26, 1994
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"Doctors as Judge and Jury Both Sides of Tucker Case Rip Board of Medical Examiners," //Birmingham (AL) News//, Apr. 10, 1994
 * "Doctor Loses His License In Abortions," //New York Times//, Apr. 23, 1994
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"Abortion Doctor Gives Up License as 'Best Course'," //Birmingham (AL) News//, Jun. 29, 1994

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">include component="tagCloud"